Group items tagged

This site gives an array of strategies and tips to cater to struggling students.

The website created by Kathleen Bulloch does offer a lot of great tips. I especially like how they are broken down into manageable chunks for a teacher who is working to accommodate a special needs student. Suggestions were provided for certain areas of concern, such as: "If a student has trouble expressing himself verbally, then try....If a student has trouble expressing himself writing, then try..." and many more categories with similar setups. Good resource for supporting special education students with quick ideas for how an educator can differentiate their instruction to support student learning.

This blog post explains the biggest learning gaps come from students of different ethic/racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. This is a great blog post that lists different ways that technology can help reduce the learning gap in schools for those particular students. One way that I am familiar with was to individualize student learning to help students stay motivated. Technology can individualize student learning in so many ways.

I enjoyed reading this blog because it points out the different factors outside of school that affects achievement gaps. Technology is not always an option for these students at home but for the most part a student can get access to the Internet somewhere and if there are resources online for that student, this will help in closing the gap. Blended learning is becoming more popular and has a noticeable impact on students exposed to it.

Week 7:Apyrl Poch describes different strategies in which teachers can present word problems to students. She discusses how representation is very important when teaching students how to solve different word problems. Incorporating these types of strategies in your instruction will help your students. This is important because it can help you teach your students how to solve different word problems. It gives the instructor different strategies to use in their classroom to reach success.

Most teachers believe that students have a fear of word problems, but this article will have you second guessing that. The article will have teachers thinking that word problems should be used from the start of a lesson and not at the very end of a homework assignment. Students normally perform better on word problems then algebraic solving because they have context clues to help them solve the problem.

To sum up this article you can look at the following quote from it; And he warned that the tendency to wait before using word problems could exacerbate gaps for students who struggle with algebra early on, because they may not be exposed to many word problems at all. Students have a fear of word problems because they perceive that they are too hard before they even begin working on them. This combined with the gaps in the vocabulary knowledge are making word problems more difficult for them.

This is an article that explores the strategy of introducing word problems first during math instruction. As a math teacher, I tend to introduce concepts first then build up to applying those concepts to word problems. The strategy of introducing the word problems first acts to help students solve a problem using any method they are comfortable with, without getting bogged down with the math too soon and becoming unwillingly to solve it. This could address the SMART learning goal, by helping us to rethink the way in which students approach word problems.

This short article discusses strategies for helping adolescents who are reading at low levels.

This article provides information on helping older students who struggle with reading and Word study for adolescents who read at a very low level. It also provides next steps for these students. Even though it is geared toward older students, the strategies can be applied to younger ones as well. My Smart goal, 80% of students will reach level K in reading (lowest grade-appropriate reading level for second grade) by the beginning of the December, can be aided by this strategy. Word Study support can aid in decoding skills, which in turn helps students to become better readers. And once students can decode successfully, they can really focus in on the comprehension skills.

Week 9: Daniel Light presents this article about keeping students engaged while in Math. It is so important to keep your students engaged while learning. When students are engaged, they are more likely to stay focused and motivated while learning. Thus, students will retain the information because they are focused and motivated. Daniel Light provides strategies to do this in math class.

(Week 7: Amber, Angela, and Kenneth) This article is accessible through the link given above. The article discuss a research method that is based on student centered teaching rather than teacher centered teaching. The article displays the changes for a teacher design where the teacher leads every activity and shift the focus to the teacher become the facilitator. Instead of having large number in classes, small groups scenarios are shown to be more effective with students learning from their experiences rather than the teacher teaching all the knowledge and content. This shift looks as though it was a two year time span and shows some effective result where student centered teaching where student are active learners. Teachers can use this article to design and implement a different approach to teaching by empowering themselves to switch up the way they teach in the classroom. Instead of lecturing information, they should try to work with their student and create exercises where the student learn from each others and their experiences where the teachers are the facilitator. Barraket (2005) states that student centered approach promotes small group activities that will improve the response of pedagogical challenges of teaching social research methods (Barraket (2005). Reference Barraket, J. (2005). Teaching Research Method Using a Student-Centred Approach? Critical Reflections on Practice. Journal Of University Teaching And Learning Practice, 2(2), Retreived from http://www.eric.ed.gov.ezproxy.umuc.edu/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=EJ1059434

This article suggests different ways to incorporate student choice into the tasks, assignments, and assessments that we give as teachers. The article mentions that while the idea of there being actual student learning "styles" that teachers should attempt to teach to has been essentially debunked, there is research showing that incorporating choice for students does have a higher impact on their engagement and learning. There are suggestions given in this article about ways to incorporate more student choice, as well as links to other sites with more resources.

Dimension: Impact on learning Rating: 4 I think that including student choice and student agency lets students complete activities that fit their personal interests and learning styles.

This research looked at students with and with out learning disabilities, receiving the same education as students with out disabilities. This has a big impact on my full inclusion classroom. Within the conclusion, the authors state that students with learning disabilities should receive more time on the curriculum to increase their achievement and lower the learning gaps between the students.

This article is a resource for teaching content area vocabulary.

As an "online work platform with a new take on how everyday work gets done," students could use Podio as a school social network devoted to thier studies. Much like a Facebook account, students would use Podio to complete assignments and discuss classroom content. This collaborative tool can also be used as a place students could use to complete projects and group work assignments. This sort of experience would be effective for teachers looking to have students working with other students from different schools/districts on a common project. This could be useful with Project Based Learning assignments as well.

I see that Podio is targeting higher ed students, and wonder whether it would be to risky to use it in k12. See: http://blog.podio.com/2011/11/16/podios-free-university-program-supports-students-the-real-future-of-work/ There's no teacher control board as there is in Diigo, for example.

This resource speaks to the importance of giving students the opportunity to experience word problems in a more natural way, such as providing video anchors. This article identifies a video resource that was created by Vanderbilt University titled "The Adventures of Jasper Woodbury." These videos present a real life challenge and problem that helps students work through the problem solving process as a class.

This article discusses strategies for helping relate word problems to real life for students. It is suggested to use anchored instruction, linking instruction to assessment and having students answer challenge problems. The implication is that word problems are textual as opposed to contextual and that real-world problem solving occurs in dynamic environments. This could help by presenting word problems in a different manner for students, thereby linking the problem to a real world sccenario.

"This protocol is inclusive of all students and promotes collaboration and shared understanding as students either guess or share important words or concepts with their classmates in an interactive way."

Quiz Quiz trade is a great resource that fully involves students. Students are highly engaged in the reading and answering of questions with their classmates. This fits into my SMART goal of getting students to recognize their musical notes and forms because they can practice quizzing each other on different types of notes and songs.

This article looks at the importance of technology use in the classrooms in the 21st century and how this technology can be used to help close learning gaps. It specifically looks at students who are "at-risk". This article addresses great points but also cautions that in order for technology to be effective, it needs to be accompanied by professional development.

This article highlights a report completed by the Alliance for Excellent Education and the Staford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education in 2014. The article notes that students can make significant increases in learning and engagement through the use of technology. However, students from poor socio economic backgrounds may not have the same instruction or access to technology as those from more affluent neighborhoods. The auther then presents a list of solutions.

I like that this article encourages a blended learning approach with technology. I think that tech is a powerful tool that needs to be paired with hands on activities for the early learners.

"Science talks allow all students to do exactly what scientists do: think about, wonder about, and talk about how things work, the origins of phenomena, and the essence of things."

SMART Goal: Students will be able to solve an on-grade level math task, that will require them to respond and defend their work to explain their reasoning 3 out of 5 times by the end of the 1st marking period. Planning Protocol: Student Engagement can be a tactic that my team can use for the SMART goal because students are lacking the ability to defend their reasoning when it comes to writing the information down on paper. If we practice students defend their answers by engaging them in guided questions and discussions (orally) and letting students know what they instructors are looking for, I think it will help students be able to defend their answers when writing them down.

In this blog post, Carrie Toth describes how she uses a 'musical chairs' strategy to help students collaboratively write a story. This requires them to first read and then build upon previous contributions. Carrie Toth describes how she uses this with her language learning students but it can be used in any content area to help develop student writing and reading skills. An additional benefit is that students get to move around and research shows the importance of physical activity and learning.

"Teachers must find creative ways to have the students answer the essential question at the end of the lesson. A student's ability to answer the essential question at this point is a way for the teacher to assess the student's learning. In most instances, this is the point when a teacher can determine whether she needs to go back and reteach or needs to accelerate student learning."

A website that exercises strategies for teachers to interact with students. Content includes a video and interactive non-negotiables steps that all teacher can take to the classroom in order to engage all students.